As a business owner, have you ever wondered just how much your disorganization is costing you? All that time you waste looking for things, files, or paying someone to clean up your books, research issues after you receive a government notice, or a vendor statement with a high balance? it really is money down the drain in lost productivity.

As an entrepreneur, you have to be aware of many things in your business. It is your responsibility as a business owner after all.

Here is a list of documents and things that you should keep organized:

Business registration (Federal and State)

Company bylaws for corporations

The operating agreement for LLCs

Employment agreement

Employee Records

Payroll Federal and State Filings and Payments

Bank and Credit Cards Statements

Deposit details (copies of checks received and invoices)

Check copies or paystubs

Business Tax Returns

Customer Contact Records

With today’s cloud technology, getting your documents organized is simple and easy to implement compared to the high cost of disorganization.

An organized system should be a helpful tool, not a hindrance to productivity. Stop procrastinating this very important aspect of owning a business, avoid the high costs and get to work in organizing your business documentation.

Running a small business is challenging, let’s face it, if becoming a successful entrepreneur was easy, everyone would be doing it. Of course, success is definitely possible, and if you are truly determined you increase your chances of success by tenfold.

And if you can overcome the following common obstacles to success, you will give yourself the best possible odds of achieving your goals.

Mindset Change

Your mindset is your collection of thoughts and beliefs that shape your thought habits. And your thought habits affect how you think, what you feel, and what you do. In other words, your mindset is a big deal.

You need to change your own mentality. You need to develop a mindset where you believe that no challenge is too great and you need to stay as positive as possible, especially when things get tough.

Set Goals

The effect of setting goals cannot be overemphasized, a defined vision allows you to set goals that define the path you plan to take and how you envision your progress along the way. A strong vision, along with clear-cut goals, will give you a strategy for achieving success.

Ask For Help

The truth is, you cannot do it all yourself and you do not have all the skill sets to do it either. You need help that is but obvious. Delegate responsibilities to others, consult with or hire experts in the areas you are stuck with. Independent contractors or consultants are an economical place to start – they contribute as needed and get to know the ropes without the expense and management oversight that employees need.

It is OK to ask for help, no shame in doing so, actually more power to you for recognizing what your weaknesses are.

Manage Your Money

Money makes the world go around, so you must not forget about your money! This is one of the most important aspects of a business since it’s pretty much your lifeblood, so you need to be able to manage it effectively. Keep track of how much you have, where it’s coming from and where it’s going. You may be able to do it yourself at first, but as your business grows, you may find you don’t have the time, so you may want to think about getting an accountant or bookkeeper.

When you are feeling overwhelmed on the grounds of challenges, ask yourself why you started it in the first place. This will give you clarity of mind and motivation to finish what you started despite the bundle of challenges you face.

If you are not focus on growth chances are you will either be stagnate or become part of ‘failed’ businesses statistics. So if you are running a small business with the intention to grow it, here are some tips that may help you achieve it.

Automate, automate, automate!

If you are working with a small team or by yourself, you need to create systems for your business that save you time and effort. Creating a system for generating and sending invoices, for example, means you won’t have to start from scratch every time.

You can create systems for virtually everything from scheduling meetings with prospects, to creating templates for repetitive tasks. And as you scale your operation, having systems in place can give your growing business an edge.

2. Marketing is a numbers game

Tearing yourself away from day-to-day tasks and deadlines to focus on marketing is hard, but it’s essential if you want your business to keep going — and growing. Chances are you’re wasting plenty of time that could be used for marketing activities.

If you want to find that time, try tracking the time you spend on different tasks for at least a week. Once you have a better idea of how much time you’re putting in each day, you’ll see where you have time to spare to promote your business and launch new marketing campaigns.

3. Organization is key

Inconsistent record-keeping practices like throwing receipts into a shoebox or not keeping track of mileage will come back to haunt you at tax time. When it comes to time tracking, especially, poor record-keeping can cost you money, lots of money!

Create bins or folders to better organize your paperwork, do the same with your electronic records. Use names that will make it easy to find a year or two from now.

4. Understand your business finances

Even if you hire an accountant at tax time, every entrepreneur should understand the basics of bookkeeping and accounting. You have options, you might take an accounting course online or attend a workshop at one of the many non-profit organizations in town such as WBCC. You might also see if your accountant is able to provide guidance and consulting in this area.

If you’re still tracking your income and expenses on Excel spreadsheets, please do yourself a favor and consider upgrading to an system like QuickBooks Online or Xero. These tools are built for small businesses and can help you automate as well as keep you informed on how your business finances are doing throughout the year.

Growth can be challenging but also very rewarding, now that we have a fresh new year is a great time to work on your business goals.

As I drive around town and watch all the leaves fall from the trees, it reminds me that just as nature clears the path for the new season, we as business owners need to do the same in order to grow.

The questions is, what do you want to achieve? Do you want to grow your profits? what will it take? Do you want to sell new services or products? what market research have you done? You get the idea, once you have answered this, you have to take time to identify the things that take up your time and energy and prevent you from reaching your goals.